PROGRAMME AND ABSTRACTS - Università degli Studi di Messina

scholarly field, their biographical heritage as part of a Jewish minority, and Italian culture,
from the seconf half of 19 th century to the rise of Fascism.
Giovanna Faraone, University of Messina, Italy
Filosofia e religione in Giovanni Gentile
79
Wed 16 th , 15.00, Classroom 9
Religion is one of the most important themes in the whole Giovanni Gentile’s intellectual
route. In the early historical works Religion is considered a decisive factor for the cultural
scene of Italian Risorgimento and a source of inspiration for the new philosophy which was its
leading spirit. At the beginning of the 20 th century Gentile takes part in the debate about
Modernism, starting from an idealistic point of view about Religion, which he considers a
philosophia inferior, and nevertheless a primary factor in the cultural life. But the originality,
and mainly the importance, of Gentile’s idea of Religion appear from the speculative point of
view. Gentile changes the traditional definition of transcendence, but he upholds the
authenticity and the value of his interpretation of Christianity as a Religion of divine and
human “Spirit”. Therefore, through Gentile’s thought this paper discusses the most important
theoretical cruxes of the relation between Religion and Philosophy, Religion and rational
thought: the cultural value of Religion; the dialectic between authority and freedom in the
acknowledgment of the dogmas of faith; the peculiar definition of the concepts of immanence
and transcendence within the context of a “Religion of the spirit”; the fertility of Gioberti’s
concept of “poligonia” of Truth that is, under many points of view, similar to the late
perspectives of Theology, influenced by hermeneutics philosophy and no more by the
Scholastic one.
N. M. Farrè, University of Lleida, Spain
Wed 16 th , 17.20, Classroom 13
Crusading and Mission: Relationships between Religious Conversion and Military Conquest in
Ramon Llull’s Thought.
In Ramon Llull’s Libre de contemplació en Déu we find a certain scepticism concerning the
crusades’ spiritual efficacy (a minority position but by no means exceptional, e.g. Roger
Bacon). Refusal of or precaution against the use of arms appears in later writings such as
Blanquerna or, very clearly, in the Libre contra Anticrist. From the crusades’ military defeats
Llull draws the conclusion that God does not approve armed action against infidels. Holy Land
can only be conquered in the apostles’ way, i.e. by preaching, praying e ab escampament de
làgremes e de sang. But throughout his life, Llull’s multifarious personality shows different
and qualified attitudes. His leading ideal, the mission, begins to show signs of accommodation
with some preliminary projects of military crusade. Those projects take a rather scrupulous
account of the political interests of his time (church politics, outlawing the Order of the
Temple, the politics of the Houses of France and Aragon, etc.). Thus, even though up to 1285
we find in Llull’s work an strictly missionary ideal, from then onwards mission and crusade
will appear increasingly correlated. In 1288, the new point of view comes out quite clearly in
Liber tartari et christiani: mission, preaching, and crusading must be complementary. By